They Lost Argentina’s Abortion Vote, but Advocates Started a Movement

BUENOS AIRES — They narrowly lost the vote.

But as supporters of a bill to legalize abortion in Argentina began to shake off a stinging defeat in the Senate on Thursday, they took consolation in having galvanized a reproductive-rights movement across Latin America and began to consider how to redirect their activism.

A coalition of young female lawmakers who stunned the political establishment by putting abortion rights at the top of the legislative agenda this year seemed to be on the verge of a historic victory with the bill. But intense lobbying by Catholic Church leaders and staunch opposition in conservative northern provinces persuaded enough senators to vote against it.

After a 17-hour hearing, the bill was defeated early Thursday by a vote of 38 to 31, with two abstentions.

“We will no longer be silent and we won’t let them win,” said Jimena Del Potro, a 33-year-old designer who fought back tears as she spoke. “Abortion will be legal soon. Very soon.”

Despite the setback, many proponents marveled that Argentine lawmakers had come so close to passing the measure, which would have allowed abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and fractured the near-total prohibition on abortion in Latin America.

The measure had already been approved in the lower chamber of Congress. Current law allows abortions only in cases of rape or when a mother’s life is in danger.

The bill energized hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across Argentina in a women’s rights movement known as Ni Una Menos — Not One Less — and enthused women from Brazil to Mexico.

“What Argentina did was mobilize young women and create the memory that we almost won,” said Debora Diniz, an anthropologist at the University of Brasília who helped write a petition now before Brazil’s Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of its anti-abortion laws.


“They changed the way we talk about abortion,” Ms. Diniz said. “It’s not just feminists, intellectuals. It’s young women, your daughter, your sister.”



Fuente: NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/world/americas/argentina-abortion-laws-south-america.html